Chicago Cubs: Top 10 Rookie-Eligible Prospects for 2018
We have reached the point of the offseason where prospect lists abound. We continue our top 10 prospects for every team with the Chicago Cubs!
Our team top 10 prospect lists at Call to the Pen are spearheaded by Benjamin Chase. Today, he gives us the top ten prospects for the Chicago Cubs.
This season, we will be going through teams by division, in order of 2017 record. The AL East will be first, followed by the AL Central and AL West. Then the focus will shift to the National League in the same order.
The format will be as it was last season for the same lists, with a system review, which will include last season’s list. The top 10 will follow in reverse order, two players per page in order to give adequate space to each player. Major trades or international signings will lead to an updated top 10!
Finally, don’t go away after #1 is revealed as each list will also contain a player either signed in the 2017 international free agent class or drafted in 2017 that isn’t part of the top 10 and should be tracked. Last season’s mentions in that area made over half of the top 10s this season, so this is a great way to get to know a player who could be making a big splash in the organization.
System overview
When you tear down your major league team and build up a farm system to the point of brimming with talent, you hope that you can see much of that talent come to fruition at the right time together to be an impact team all together. Recently, we’ve seen this work with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, and the Houston Astros.
The Cubs brought up a lot of the best of their young bats and some of their better young arms to build up their current team that is laden with youth around the diamond, without a projected position starter that’s even 29 as the season opens, let alone 30 (though 36 year-old Ben Zobrist and 35 year-old Chris Gimenez project to be part of the bench).
With that level of youth, the Chicago Cubs understandably utilized their top prospects in trades, and while it’s left their top levels of their system barren with impact players, there is still some high-ceiling talent that could take off in the low levels, which is really the one thing keeping the Cubs from the bottom system in the game right now, though that ranking is understandable.bryan
Let’s take a look at that system….
Next: #9 and #10